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[parodeity]

DAVE STRIDER

consider this your warning about stairs. itll just keep happening bro. im telling you man

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[windeity]

[He doesn't seem to think it's weird but he's also still focused on the other things happening. Dave is in front of him. Sixteen year old memory John has a cyclone in his hand. Thirteen year old John just put on a clever disguise.

They're all technically him, but at what point are they him and what point are they better than him?]

A memory. [Not. Quite.] A dream?

[parodeity]

Close.

[ he's trying to get john to ignore the other versions of himself and focus on not that. dave kind of sighs, and lean closer to take up more of john's line of sight. ]

If this is a dream, where are you right now?

[windeity]

[Hi Dave.]

...my desk. I was reading and I think I fell asleep.

[parodeity]

[ hi john. there's the briefest smile. ]

Okay. So let's think about that. Want to bet you have a textbook imprint on your face now?

[windeity]

[There's a groan. One of the johns flickers away.]

Probably! And if I drool on my books again I am pretty sure the library won't be happy with me.

[parodeity]

I also bet you totally managed to fuck up your answers somehow. Wrote across them with pen while you were dozin' off. Smudged the ink. Doc Trombone is definitely judging you from across the room, silently.

[windeity]

Dude, shut up! [But he's trying not to laugh. One of the other Johns disappears, too.] Doc Trombone has zero room to judge, academia has changed a lot since his age. If I wake up with ink smeared all over my face how bad are you going to judge me?

[parodeity]

[ okay, cool, that's still working. not that dave...lets go...of john's face. look. ]

Depends on what it looks like, doesn't it? And how permanent the ink is. You didn't happen to choose to write in blue permanent marker, did you? And hey, did you have the window open, or shut?

[windeity]

I am pretty sure my professors would kill me if I wrote in permanent marker, but I am really glad it exists again. [He pauses to think. And he's not exactly protesting Dave holding his face since it's keeping him grounded.]

Mostly closed because of that fog, but it is unlocked. Are you coming through it again?

[parodeity]

I do not know. [ if john waking up jars him awake, perhaps? he's hazy on whether or not he's out of it enough he'll just flip to the next nightmare, unwilling. ]

Usually I just take the stairs, dude. Also, you clearly have not committed to the blue thing enough.

[windeity]

[The "I do not know" is enough to basically make sure he doesn't immediately wake up at least, but he's also lifting his eyebrows.]

How have I not--[Oh.] It is seriously not my fault my eyes are still gray, Dave.

[parodeity]

[ taps john's cheeks with his fingers, which is easy given yeah. ]

Not what I meant, buttercup. I mean you are not writin' in blue pen only as of yet. I...write in red pen more than I should, actually? It is a habit that is hard to re-break.

[windeity]

[His response is to puff his cheeks out so that Dave's fingers draw out a hollow sound. He idly thinks about the fact that Dave's called him buttercup twice now and they were both after nightmares. It's a weird thought.]

I am actually surprised you get away with it. Most places want you to use black or blue only. And I'm getting there. I can't do my math homework in pen either, dude.

[parodeity]

[ dave proceeds to tap out the beat to this song on john's cheeks. thanks john. ]

Mostly my teachers have given up, I think. Also, I can do mine in pen? ...But admittedly I like math. Haha, shit, you fella sleep doin' math, didn't you.

[windeity]

[Well okay. Like John doesn't recognize the song, Dave? Come on. He settles for a grin for a split-second...before he sticks his tongue out.]

It's so boring! What do they expect? No wonder you were able to take all of my money.

[parodeity]

[ it's not a secret!!!!!!! he says buttercup and it gets stuck in his head. so. ]

I was able to take all of your money because you trusted me.

[windeity]

And I still do, which is why you are still in my dream and I am in my pajamas and letting you play a song from the 60s on my face. [Wryly.] Having fun?

[parodeity]

Maybe. [ one of those flicker-fast smiles, before he says: ] I didn't intend to leave you behind, back then.

[windeity]

Back when? [Is he feigning ignorance or does he really not know? The world may never know.]

[parodeity]

John, c'mon. I know you're not actually a dumbass. [ his fingers still. ] - I don't remember it, and I know why, and I know that I didn't mean to leave you alone. I just...thought you should know. I intended the opposite.

[windeity]

[...]

I know. Sometimes shit happens to people and they leave. I know that. And I know you and I know Jade and I know Rose. Or at least I think I do. If we had a choice, none of that would have happened. We were playing along with the game so that we could stick together and get to the new universe after the reckoning. Something else happened.

Maybe...we shouldn't remember for a while? It doesn't matter. Things are different here.

[parodeity]

It matters if you're dreamin' about it. [ quietly. ] And I already remember it. I just...

[ ... ]

I wanted you to know. That I was - that I am sorry for failing you in that particular way.

[windeity]

You didn't fail me. [He doesn't know the extent of how or anything, but there's a short, tentative smile.] You told me you have memories of us at 21. So the four of us came back together again, didn't we?

[parodeity]

[ sure. except dave knows that's the pivot point; the doomed timeline he remembers, and what happened after... ]

I'm the Knight of Time. [ it's as much an answer as anything. ] ...And I don't think there's been a single universe where I really wanted to exist in a world without the three of you.

[windeity]

[There's a slow nod and he sort of just...moves to rest his forehead against Dave's instead.]

Yeah. It'd be a pretty shitty universe that way. I think...I just never knew what I was missing without you guys.